sons to Egypt to buy corn, for it was
plentiful there. He would not let Benjamin go, however, fearing that
some harm might come to him. When Reuben and his brothers reached
Egypt they were taken to Joseph, the governor, who recognized them at
once, but pretended to think they were spies. They protested in vain
that they had been sent by their father to buy food and that this was
their only errand.

Joseph asked them if they had any other brothers, and they told him
there was one more, Benjamin, the youngest. Then Joseph told them to
go home and come back again bringing Benjamin with them, and that he
would keep Simeon, one of their number, until they did this.

So back they went with their sacks full of corn which Joseph had
allowed them to buy, and told their father what the governor had said
and done. At first Jacob refused to let them take Benjamin away from
him, but when the corn they had brought home was all gone he consented.

Once more the brothers stood before the governor of Egypt and this time
Benjamin was with them. After questioning them once more, letting them
start on their home-ward journey, and then bringing them back again,
Joseph told them who he was and how he had been prospered. He gave
them food and money and clothes and sent them back to Hebron. He also
told them to bring back their father Jacob and gave them wagons in
which to bring his goods.

[Illustration: Joseph told them who he was.]

Pharaoh, the King, also sent an invitation to Jacob, and in time he and
his sons and their families went to Egypt and were given the fertile
land of Goshen for their home. They were put in charge of all the
King's flocks and herds and became very prosperous.

But before agreeing to this change of home Jacob asked God if he should
go to Egypt. God told him to go, and on the way his long-lost son
Joseph met him and took him to Pharaoh, who received him very kindly.

Jacob and his sons lived peaceably in Egypt for seventeen years, and
then Jacob died at the age of a hundred and forty-seven years. But
before he died he blessed Joseph's two sons and made him promise to
bury him in the family sepulchre, the cave of Machpelah.

As the end approached, Jacob blessed all his twelve sons and foretold
what their lives would be, bestowing a peculiar blessing upon his third
son, Judah, from whose descendants should be born the Saviour of his
people.

Jacob's body was embalmed and carried to the land of C